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Were the summer temps making your cruise sessions a little sweaty? How about slipping into something more comfortable?<\/p>\n
IT’S TRUE what they say: ‘Happy wife equals happy life.’ Phillip Vella was getting married and his XY HO replica was going to be the bridal ride, so to ensure his betrothed doesn’t get all hot and bothered on her big day, he figured he’d better fit an air conditioner. Rohan Hutson from Australian Auto Air is here to show us how it’s done.<\/p>\n
Any air-conditioning system that was fitted to a classic streeter as original equipment will usually be well past its use-by date, and the mandatory replacement of R-12 refrigerant gas with R-134a is another issue. It’s possible to convert your original system over to R-134a, but it has to be in top condition, and if an a\/c system hasn’t been running for some time, it won’t be. So, you’ll probably have to replace an old factory unit.<\/p>\n
The easiest way to air-condition a street machine these days is to fit a new system designed to run on R-134a from the outset, like the Vintage Air unit shown above. People have been known to transfer OEM R-134a systems from one car into another, but often this doesn’t work very well. On the other hand, aftermarket systems like those offered by Vintage Air are designed to fit the widest range of cars, and they work properly. They’re also pretty easy to fit.<\/p>\n
Vintage Air offers ready-to-fit kits tailored to most American muscle cars. But if the steering has been converted to RHD, such kits will no longer bolt straight in. Rohan says people think you can just flip them and fit them, but it’s not quite as simple as that; modification is necessary. And of course, the Americans don’t make kits for Australian cars.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Vintage Air also offers universal kits that solve these compatibility problems. The installation procedure that Rohan will demonstrate here for Phillip’s Cleveland-powered XY is readily adaptable to virtually any street machine.<\/p>\n